Trad IRA to Roth Conversion. I did this last year, and there were some fine print details. I'm preparing to do it again this year, and I'd like to run this by the smart people here to see if I'm missing anything. I'm shooting to max out the 15% bracket.
1) Before EOY, convert more than I think I need to put me to the top of the 15% tax bracket. Remember that deductions and brackets probably changed from last year, so estimate on the high side, or (gasp) look it all up and do your taxes before EOY (I don't think you can - the forms are not finalized?).
2) Get my taxes done as quick as I can, and determine exactly how much to 'recharacterize' to avoid going over the 15% bracket (or to avoid any credits from being reduced - this was one 'gotcha' from last year for me).
3) Send in the rechar paper work to the IRA administrator and make sure it gets processed before filing my taxes.
Another thing that I think I learned from last year - when you rechar, they make adjustments based on the fund value change from the time you converted to the time you rechar. That just makes things a bit more complex. So I am going to add a step:
Before Step 1) Open a Money Market account in my Roth IRA so the conversion goes into a dollar stable fund. That should simplify the rechar - no adjustment to make for fund value changes (maybe they count the interest? that should be minor anyhow). Move it if I wish after the taxes are all set.
Am I missing anything?
TIA - ERD50
PS - I just added 'Form 1099-R' to the title, cause I know that always gets Martha's attention 
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